Watch the following informative video for a short introduction of what you are about to visit.
You are now standing in front of the remains of an iron furnace. This facility, Beckley Furnace, operated from 1847 until 1919, making it one of the last of its kind to operate in the United States. Originally this site consisted of several buildings which evolved over the life of the site. On this side of the furnace there was a large brick building with a curved metal roof called the casting shed. It was in this building that molten iron was removed from the furnace and cast into ingots called “pigs”. The ingots got their name from the fact that the shape of the molds resembled piglets nursing on their mother. These ingots were then shipped to other industries, some nearby, some very far away to make iron goods of great variety. One particular use of the iron made here was railroad car wheels. Wheels made from the iron produced here were particularly resistant to cracking. Thousands of them carried goods all over the United States as well as other countries during the great industrial expansion of the second half of the nineteenth century.
On the far side of the building was a water turbine and associated machinery which was used to force air into the furnace to aid in the combustion of the charcoal used as fuel. Also on the far side of the furnace was an oven used to preheat the air sent to the furnace. Early ironmakers learned that hot air made the furnace more efficient so the oven was an important component of the overall site. The oven used waste gas from the furnace as fuel showing an early example of industrial recycling.
The ironmaking process resulted in by-products as well. This furnace produced a waste product called slag. This material is formed from other minerals present in iron ore, most notably silicon, and resembles glass. During the years of its operation this furnace produced an enormous amount of slag. The size of the slag heap across the river from the furnace was estimated at 900,000 cubic yards in 1920. Some of the slag was crushed and mixed with cement to make slag concrete. A number of buildings in New England were made with slag exported from this site. Slag was also used as a component in road surfacing, but it did not perform well in that application. Ultimately the slag was abandoned to the forest which has reclaimed the slag piles and made them all but invisible today.
Casting Arch
This arch was used to gain access to the hearth area of the furnace. It is the largest of the four arches in the furnace structure. It is from this opening that molten iron flowed into sand molds to form the iron “pigs” that were the final product of this furnace. Waste material, called slag, was also removed from the furnace via this arch.
When the furnace was in operation the area in front of this arch was enclosed in a large building called the casting shed. The low stone walls around the furnace stack are the remains of the foundations of the casting shed walls. We know from old photographs that the casting shed had two large doors: one in the front where the iron was removed and one on the side toward the Blackberry River where the slag was removed.
Furnace Hearth
This area of the furnace is where the molten iron was removed from the furnace. The restored hearth is shown cut away so that you can see the details of its construction. The small cylindrical chamber at the bottom of the furnace stack, called the crucible, is where the molten iron collected. Floating on top of this pool of iron was a layer of unwanted glasslike material called slag. The slag was drawn off and discarded in huge piles still to be seen across the river from the furnace. Openings in the crucible were plugged with clay to hold the molten liquids in place until the furnace was tapped. The first plug was removed to drain the slag and then the second plug to release the iron. The stream of molten iron was directed to molds made in the sand floor of the casting shed where it hardened into ingots called pigs.
This furnace had a water jacket around the hearth to lengthen the life of the refractory bricks and keep the furnace in service for longer periods of time.
The next step on the tour is located to your right. Click on the link below to get started.